I work in tech support for a CDN. I don't know what sort of visions these "hacktavists" get about causing billions of dollars in damage, causing chaos in the streets or creating a real-life version of Fight Club or V for Vendetta. Whatever hard-ons they're getting about this mischief, the true extent of their damage is giving me and my colleagues a few more stressful tickets to add to our caseload. I've been involved in fending off attacks that made the news, but as far as I'm concerned, an Anonymous attack = giving one miserable Farker a headache as he works in a home office. It's the Internet equivalent of vomiting on a restaurant floor and leaving it for some poor schmuck to clean up. That's not going to make the history books, folks. Besides, if you're not a nuisance, you're just job security. In fact, since the product team came out with a new security package the guys over in Sales love you assholes.

So think about that. Next time you attack a major website, you're really just an unpaid marketing arm for cybersecurity companies.

Headso:More like deferred payment, after they grow up and move out of mom's basement they can get jobs at those companies.

Yeah, not so much. This is like saying pitchers make the best hitters because they know so much about pitching. Attacking a well-defended site does take some skill and it's a really bad day when that happens, but these skills don't necessarily translate from offense to defense. If anything, the opposite is true -- I learned way more than I want to know about hacking by just having to deal with it on a regular basis. Besides, you can't put down "I haXXord ur SITE LOLOL" on a resume; considering the stuff we're given access to on a daily basis, a lack of trustworthiness is a show-stopper. It's not my decision, but I don't want a former hacker on my team; that's like a bank hiring someone guilty of fraud. (Oh wait. . .)

I work in tech support for a CDN. I don't know what sort of visions these "hacktavists" get about causing billions of dollars in damage, causing chaos in the streets or creating a real-life version of Fight Club or V for Vendetta. Whatever hard-ons they're getting about this mischief, the true extent of their damage is giving me and my colleagues a few more stressful tickets to add to our caseload. I've been involved in fending off attacks that made the news, but as far as I'm concerned, an Anonymous attack = giving one miserable Farker a headache as he works in a home office. It's the Internet equivalent of vomiting on a restaurant floor and leaving it for some poor schmuck to clean up. That's not going to make the history books, folks. Besides, if you're not a nuisance, you're just job security. In fact, since the product team came out with a new security package the guys over in Sales love you assholes.

So think about that. Next time you attack a major website, you're really just an unpaid marketing arm for cybersecurity companies.

This might be less than relevant to mention at this point but why couldn't they have come up with their own masks? The whole Guido Fawkes thing doesn't really make me want to take them seriously as a terrorist organization.

As a Telecom Project Manager, I love the fear created by Anonymous and groups like it. Multiple infrastructure upgrades to communications backhauls used by the big boys. Redundant MTSO's, TDM/MSN router upgrades/swapouts. ALU is making a fortune from it. Keep it up! Fight the system!

Lehk:>implying hackers and virus writers aren't being paid by the security companies.

I wouldn't be shocked if some are, though I'd be pissed if we were doing that. It would be a particularly stupid way to attract business, though anyone who thinks businesses always make smart decisions should probably take a sobriety test.

If Anonymous had any real reach, they'd have members who are in middle and upper management positions and have access to critical functions of finance and government. But no, they're a bunch of weenie script kiddies who think a DDOS is the height of hacking prowess.

/they're paper tigers only worth the amount of paper on which the internet is printed